Legacy [ Naruto Reader-Insert ]

獮 - Sen - Autumn Hunt PT 2

You reach out to touch the sides of the wooden frame when you find pale fingers around your wrist in a gentle but firm grip. Your shoulders jump.

"Zumi-kun," Hound says from behind you, all dressed up in his uniform. No longer the sloppy man he was before, "Didn't anyone tell you not to intrude on their privacy? He pauses, "Ah, then again. You kinda busted my door open."

Tch. Your eyebrow twitches at that as you look at him over your shoulder. "Says the person who wanted to skip out on training that he was supposed to give me," You click your tongue at him, jabbing a finger into his wrist. Multiple times until he lets go. Hound eventually does, letting your arm drop to your side.

"Ehe," Hound lets out a low but sheepish chuckle as he scratches the back of his head, "You got me there, Zumi-kun."

You keep a pointed eye on him. What. Where did the Hound before go? The sudden shift in attitude causes your heart to quiver in it's cage of flesh and bone. He wears that stupid expression like he wears his mask.

Your heart stops quivering and it's sent sinking faster than a heavy rock into deep waters when you experience a sudden realization about yourself.

Is that how- Is that how Ataru and Yawaraka saw you when you make the switch to your more polite persona? A pang shoots through your chest and you can't help it but you let a slight wince slip through the cracks of your own facade. Salt in the wound. So that's how they saw you. It's not a surprise why they called you a monster. You suppose it's strange when you switch between the two with practiced ease, behaving like a stranger who put on your skin.

Then again, who are you to say that both sides aren't the real you?

Your eyebrows come together as you blink back at the picture from where you stand for a few seconds before brushing past him in the narrow space, making sure to dig your heel directly on his open toes.

"Ah," He grunts, gracing your ears with his best monotone, "That hurts."

The corner of your lips twitch. Hound's starting to piss you off. "Come on, sensei. Let's go." You say as you walk out of the door of his apartment.

The faint image of the older man in the wooden frame by Hound's bed. The one with blue eyes and spiky hair, who wears his smile like a goddamn medal looks awfully familiar.

____

The both of you pass by the pachinko place without any problems and the men who're smoking outside of the place even nodded their head at him in a friendly greeting, with grins and all. Hound gives them a cheerful 'yo' in return, his eye curving into a half-moon. Lifting his hand upright in a 'what's up' kind of gesture.

You didn't hide the spasm that's working it's way up to the edges of your expression. Yo. Yo?

You've known him for this long but you've never really seen him look so amiable towards anyone else at all (besides his only friend. The one in the green jumpsuit and the horrendous bowl cut. Maito Guy? Gai? Goy? The green beast of Konoha. But then again they might have known each other since their Academy days. So that could explain the behavior).

Hound. You can't get a read on him at all, it's always been hard to tell what he's thinking most of the time. Now that he's being assigned to you as your sensei, you'll have to move very carefully. You thought the guilt that's eating away at his self-conscious was enough to keep him in your playing field, but-

He plops a gloved hand on top of your head, cutting off your train of thought. Huh? You look past his pale fingers and past the soft rays of the sun filtering through the overhead trees, directly at him.